Gross Profit on the Income Statement

Investing Lesson 4 - Analyzing an Income Statement

If you are here to learn about what gross profit is and why it is on the income statement, you've come to the right place! Here's a look at what it is, how it is calculated, what it can tell you about a business, and why it is so important.

What Is Gross Profit?

The gross profit of a business is simply revenue from sales minus the costs to achieve those sales. Or, some might say sales minus the cost of goods sold. It tells you how much money a company would have made if it didn’t pay any other expenses such as salary, income taxes, copy paper, electricity, water, rent and so forth for its employees. Gross profit (as opposed to net profit) will not include items like interest paid on loans or debts, taxes, depreciation or amortization. It also won't typically include one-time charges or credits.

Where Can I Find Gross Profit on the Income Statement?

When you look at an income statement, instead of searching for a needle in a haystack, GAAP rules require gross profit to be broken out and clearly labeled as its own line, so you can't miss it.

How Can I Calculate Gross Profit?

The formula for calculating gross profit is simple. You just have to subtract cost of the goods sold from revenue. That is:

Gross Profit = Total Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

Imagine that you own a small business, selling luxury shaving sets. After researching various vendors, you finally find a reputable source and import a British luxury shaving set for $160. You pay $20 for various merchant fees, bank processing costs, and other expenses directly related to the cost of goods. You pay $20 in incoming freight charges to receive the shaving set at the store. After creating a beautiful display for the new product and opening your doors for business the next day, a customer comes in and buys the shaving set for $315.

What is your gross profit?

To answer this question, all you have to do is quickly construct an income statement in your head. You know that you collected $315 for the sale. You know that the cost of goods sold is $200 ($160 in merchandise cost + $20 in merchant, bank, and other cost of goods sold expenses + $20 in incoming freight expense). Now, all you have to do is take $315 and subtract $200 to arrive at $115, which is your gross profit.

Now imagine, for a moment, that you run a 20 percent off sale. This drops the retail price of the luxury shaving set from $315 to $252. Your costs remain the same at $200. This means your gross profit is $52. (The math: $252 in sales revenue - $200 in cost of goods sold = $52 gross profit) This means the 20 percent discount you gave wiped an incredible 54.8 percent off your gross profit. So as a business owner, you will want to think carefully before offering deep discounts.

What is the Importance of Gross Profit?

The gross profit figure is a big deal because it is used to calculate something called gross margin, which we will discuss separately. In fact, you can't really look at gross profit on its own and know if it is "good" or "bad."

Is Gross Profit Always Calculated the Same Way?

Accounting rules give management a lot of discretion. Executives have some leeway when determining whether an expense should be included in cost of goods sold or another section, called selling, general, and administrative expenses.

This means that you could be looking at two companies with very different gross profit levels on the same amount of sales, even though it's simply the result of one management team deciding that a certain expense is a cost of goods sold and another deciding that the same expense is part of selling, general, and administrative expenses. There is not necessarily anything nefarious going on when this happens — reasonable people can and do disagree about where certain items should go on an income statement — but it creates a bit of a problem because you could be looking at two identical companies with one reporting much higher gross profit than the other.

It can be challenging ​to do an apples-to-apples comparison of companies for this reason.

More About Gross Profit and Gross Profit Margin

For more advanced readers who own a business or want to understand how to analyze gross profit margins, I wrote an essay called A Deeper Look at Gross Profit and Gross Profit Margins explaining how it is possible for a company with low gross profit margins to make more money than a company with high gross profit margins. It is definitely worth studying as this is one of those fundamental, bedrock concepts that you absolutely need understand before you open your own doors. Targeting a gross profit strategy, and sticking with it, can be a powerful way to expand your operations and communicate a consistent pricing philosophy to customers.